


Jumin's Laugh: [A Ficlet/Drabble]

by Second_Best



Series: Mystic Messenger [2]
Category: Mystic Messenger (Video Game)
Genre: Aww, Comedy, Drabble, F/M, Ficlet, Fluff, Laughter, Romance, Warm and Fuzzy Feelings, breaking character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-05
Updated: 2018-09-05
Packaged: 2019-07-07 02:56:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,862
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15899496
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Second_Best/pseuds/Second_Best
Summary: “Mr. Han... Mrs. Han, please, if we need to pull over-” The graying chauffeur almost begged, overcome with confusion."- We're alright, Driver Kim..." The girl laughed.Jumin collapsed against the beige leather and her palms pushed into his cheeks, holding his face firmly sandwiched as he shook with mirth.“This is ridiculous!” He finally declared, mouth puckered gracelessly.“That may be so! But it also works.” She insisted firmly.Jumin could only stare at her determined face.“I see taxi drivers do it all the time.” She added seriously with a slow nod.---A drabble, trying to break the character, without breaking character!





	Jumin's Laugh: [A Ficlet/Drabble]

**Let me ask you this:**

****  
**Have you ever heard a laugh so foreign,  
** **so unbecoming,**  
**that it keeps you suspended in disbelief even as the moment plays out in front of you?**  


**You begin to doubt that person is who he is, and then you begin to see that he's simply _more_ than what you know.**

\---

Han Jumin knew how to laugh, of course.  
He didn’t have Zen's spontaneous variety, and it didn’t bubble out in extensive lengths like Seven.  
It wasn’t high and chirpy like Yoosung’s; and calling it a ‘delighted giggle’ like Jaehee’s wouldn’t be right _at all_.  
If anything it held the same tempered grace as V's, but also lacked any of his gentle hesitation.

Jumin’s laugh was - more often than not - a mere syllable of breath that fell _short_ of a laugh.  
Rich, melodic and low; confidently given for an all-encompassing moment that seems much too brief.

And then in one car ride, that had changed.  
Something happened, tossing all these descriptions aside as if to say, _‘you ain’t heard nothin’ yet, bub. Get a load of this.’_

—-

The man was laughing now.  
It was unlike anything she’d ever heard in their year and a half together, and she wasn’t quite so sure when she’d laughed this hard either.

Jumin slipped sideways until his raven locks were pressed against the car’s windows, the tips of strands glowing from the morning sun as the Mercedez-Maybech sped down the road.  
All signs of debonaire breeding and grace had slowly abandoned him in the previous five minutes, and this result was an incredible sight. 

“Yes!” She punctuated, trying not to let his current appearance throw her off.  
She held the two coins up with conviction.  
“... No.”  
His shoulders were quaking uncontrollably in his three-piece suit; his lips clamped shut, stifling the sounds that were making his throat jerk.  
She moved again, the seatbelt pulling with her.  
“Stop!” He commanded in a higher voice than usual, but she only shot towards at him.  
His hands fumbled for her wrists, clutching at her arms until he grew slack with another round of low, bubbling laughter.

“Just- Jumin, stay still!” She tried to instruct despite her lungs constricting from gasps for air.  
They had been laughing for some time, and her sides were horribly stitched now. 

“I- ... I-“ Jumin's face was bright pink, the healthy color staining the bulk of his cheeks as he squeezed in an inhale.  
“Driver Kim,” He gasped, raising his head past her, “turn the car around-“  
“No! Driver Kim, keep going.” She hollered over her shoulder, “Don’t listen to Jumi-Mm!” 

He attempted to keep covering her mouth, but she ducked from his grasp; and when he was finally open, she threw as much of herself on him with the two coins clutched firmly in one hand, the force consequently knocking wind from his stomach so much so he let out a socked “oomph.”  
The sound had so accurately depicted the way it was spelled in books that they both couldn’t help bursting out laughing again.  
"Are you... a-.... are you..."  
_No, no, no._  
The sight of his pinched face as he sat undecided between laughing and groaning was mercilessly tickling the back of her throat.  
Who else knew he could be so dramatic?  
(Only a handful, really.)  
"Are you okay?" She finally managed to squeeze out.  
Her stomach tightened as she shook with more laughs, and she doubled sideways, clutching it.  
"You are a child-" Jumin exhaled disbelievingly, still quaking.  
"So are you, wiggling in your seatbelt when I'm trying so hard!"  
She gave his thigh a weak slap as he winced.

“Mr. Han... Mrs. Han, please, if we need to pull over-” The graying chauffeur almost begged, overcome with confusion.  
"- We're alright, Driver Kim..." The girl laughed.

Jumin collapsed against the beige leather and her palms pushed into his cheeks, holding his face firmly sandwiched as he shook with mirth.

“This is ridiculous!” He finally declared, mouth puckered gracelessly.  
“That may be so! But it also works.” She insisted firmly.  
Jumin could only stare at her determined face.  
“I see taxi drivers do it all the time.” She added seriously with a slow nod.

"Taxi...-"  
He considered her for all of two seconds before he finally lost it. Eyes squeezing shut with another string of hearty guffaws even more out of character than the first.  
“Taxi drivers plucking stray hairs from their faces... using... coins, you say-“ 

What a thing!  
Jumin tossed his head up with a rich reverberation of laughter.

“- Yes! They usually start plucking at the stoplight, because they don't need both hands on the wheel. And they talk to you as they do this! 'There’s a lot of traffic today,' _pluck-pluck-pluck_. 'Lovely weather,' _pluck_.” She narrated, trying to distract him while leaning in.  


"I can't see this working." Jumin's voice came out strangled.  
"Look at this," The girl held the coins to his face "- you slightly pinch the ends, it leaves a gap, you pull the hair!"  
"It's absurd." He tilted away.  
"It works better than two credit cards. _Don't-_ , I know you're thinking it."  
He jerked again with a surprisingly high-pitched crow and it knocked the pennies from her hand just as she reached for his chin.  
“Jumin, my tweezers!” She squeaked.  
“Wh-... what tweezers, they’re coins.” Jumin pointed out hoarsely before clearing his throat.  
He always found joys in stating the obvious.  
To the man, fact-stating became a joke on its own.

“These coins have a purpose.” She corrected, digging into his coat pocket where it had rolled.  
“Sometimes, taxi drivers keep them in their ears for easy access-” She plucked the other one wedged into his vest.  
“WHAT?” The heir bellowed incredulously.

The girl saw Driver Kim jump from the corner of her eye. The poor man was bearing witness for the first time to this unlikely behavior too.  
He must be wondering what the chefs had given Jumin for breakfast.  
_(He only had 'Sparkling, Dazzling, Diamond Perrieux' - a.k.a. fancy water.)_

“Yes, the coins can fit in the shells of your ears. Don't give me that look, sweetheart. It's convenient! And then, whenever you want, you can fish them out and pluck-” She explained with rising insistence, suddenly wanting to laugh again at how stupid it sounded and how wide Jumin's eyes were gradually getting.  
Because it _was_ a silly thing, and wasn't so common to begin with unless you were from an older generation; she happened to grow up in a neighborhood a little rough around the edges, a little uncouth and full of war veterans and aging folks looking to retire after they've earned enough - Yes, they were taxi drivers.  
And someone of Jumin's status had most likely never seen a sight like it.  
It was a clear example of how their worlds were so vastly different; and as much as she'd grown to adapt to his grandiose lifestyle, she wanted to stress that she hadn't forgotten her own.  


Now, C&R's corporate heir knew.  
She predicted him Boogling it sometime during his lunch hour before finally logging into the Messenger with renewed enlightenment.  


In the meantime, the man was struggling to internalize this, not without a lack of imagination.  
An image of Driver Kim tapping at a coin instead of an earpiece was his undoing.  
_No, Han Jumin, you simply can't think of it._  
The heir's face twisted in the makings of a dire cringe - unable to hold it in, he was on the verge of bursting.  
He balled a hand to his lips and shut his eyes.  
_God, control yourself, you've done this many times with clients._  
_Control-_  


“Mr. Han?” The chauffeur’s voice lifted uneasily, right on cue.

Jumin could only shake his head and hold a hand up, exhaling a tripping laugh through his nose.  
She gave him a playful slap to the coat. “Sit up, so I can start.”  
The man composed himself with a few ragged breaths.  
“How unsanitary..." He finally managed, unable to even look at his driver anymore, "Darling, you can’t tell me something so unbecoming and expect me to-“  
“I did not put these in my ears...” She interjected in defense.

 _This doesn't make coins clean for plucking at skin,_ Jumin wanted to say.  
... But he couldn't.  
In seconds, he’d exploded with another unstoppable round of boisterous laughter laced in constant wheezing.  
Tears pooled in his gray eyes, and he steadied himself on the limousine’s armrest, bending as far as the seatbelt would take him while clutching at his stomach.

“I might die of laughter.” He gasped, extracting his handkerchief and dabbing it to his dewy eyes.  
“I didn’t think -... I didn’t think it was possible until this moment.” His voice sounded faint, the sentence broken into breaths.

“Shh, you’re not dying. Now let me demonstrate.”  
And then she was on him again, digging an elbow into his chest trying to work the coins on a single hair he’d missed shaving on his chin.  
“Now, where is it...” The girl mumbled softly.  
Jumin watched her large, brown eyes search his jawline, his mouth tightening because she was just so committed to the idea.

“My husband will show up for his first meeting impeccable and unbothered because his face is flawless, I can finally try this ancient method, and most importantly Jaehee is _not_ gonna be stuck moving all of your appointments. It works out for everyone!”

“Ancient-” He repeated with a light breath, "refers to something prehistoric," clearly missing the point before continuing, “Also I should have you know, there is a spare electric razor in my side drawer at the offi-“

She caught at his chin firmly.

“Jumin, stop. I know a petty thing like this can throw you off. After you use that razor, you're gonna spend time you don't have inspecting yourself in a proper bathroom because hand mirrors and phone screens aren't good enough for you. Am I wrong?” She swiped at his damp cheek and gave a sweet smile. “And... I can’t catch it if you keep talking. So let me just _try._ ”  
Her voice subdued him and the man bit down on his grin, eyeing her.

Since when had he ever allowed anyone to treat him like this? To be handled this way, just a little gracelessly in front of his staff?  
This woman who seemed to see through him, better than anyone else; who knew the depths of his obsessiveness and perfectionist tendencies.  
This beautiful woman who was taking over his life and gradually stripping him of his hardened exterior, surprising even him, with what she could coax out.  
A year and a half ago, he would have thought it mad.  
There would have been security involved, and the actions would have been swift and unforgiving.

Most certainly, no such incident came remotely close.  
Jumin had an exceptional memory of evading any forms of intimate contact - rough or not - to attest to that. 

She snuck him a quick kiss and her face erupted with a gleeful grin as she thumbed the lipstick from his mouth.  
For a moment, Jumin’s heart fluttered the way it always did, and he couldn’t help softening with a chuckle.

Perhaps, this was fine.  
Denying her what she wanted had always given him conflicting emotions, and this was especially true because his wife oftentimes wanted something entirely selfless. Because of her less-privileged background, she was both tenacious and hardworking, moving on a moral compass that remained grounded despite the status he provided. Jumin had discovered early on that they bore similarities as well: Just like him, she made her personal decisions firmly.

He would let her, ridiculous as it was, pluck at his face with her two 10cent coins...  
Though, clearly, he would have to stress the implications of copious amounts of bacteria threatening to-  
There was a quick pinch and he gave a low yelp as her wrist snapped away.  
“My god-” He breathed, all thoughts forgotten. His hand flew to his chin as he gave her a stunned look.

Was he bleeding?  
He couldn't imagine having it done to him again.  
More alarmingly, how could she undergo such a horrifying endeavour once a week, acting as if it were nothing?  
He gave her an owlish look, suddenly lost for words. 

“A-HAH!” She nudged the brass-colored coins apart on her palm before showing him. “Here it is, this tiny thing - You see?”  
A pink nail poked at the offending hair as Jumin blinked at it.  
“I can’t believe you almost delayed my husband’s board meeting!” She scolded at her palm. "You troublesome little scraggle. Hiding from a razor, how undignified."

_I’m talking to a piece of hair._  
_A tiny Jumin-hair._  


At the thought, she began to laugh.  
Small bursts at first, and then uncontrollable giggles.  
His face contorted as she raised the offending piece of hair and the man flicked it away with an indignant gesture.  
"I don't want to see it." He childishly declared.  
The girl crumpled with a wry smile and rubbed at his chin, “... oh, Jumin.”  
Despite how sorry she looked, the man forced a serious face.  
“We’re not doing that again.” Came the strain of his baritone.

She swallowed the rawness in her throat just enough to say, “But, it works.”  
She hiccuped as Jumin’s eyelids narrowed a fraction.  
"... Darling-" A breath from him, "I suggest a numbing cream and professional anaesthesiologist on your next waxing trip." He suddenly said, entirely concerned.  
"You silly man." She collapsed with more strings of giggling.  
It was even funnier that she almost knew he was being dead serious.  
"Jumin, I've decided-" She suddenly piped.  
Her light brown eyes glistened as he raised his eyebrows in question.  
“This is my new elegant hobby next to tea-brewing! Coin-plucking. I’ll keep these in my ears, so I can do my eyebrows next.” She gasped with a melodious lilt.

The heir couldn’t help it.  
His face broke, and he rolled into another hearty laughing fit.  
“Yes. We're having dinner with your father, and I must tell him this exciting piece of news." She announced, teasing him.  
"My _god._ "  
The very idea.  
Seeing his father's look of absolute shock, perhaps hearing that gruff tone saying 'I see, please teach me the ways of my generation...'  


And then the thought occurred to the heir:  
... The Chairman would be at the meeting.  
Jumin collapsed with a breathless wheeze that was so contagious and foreign, it jumpstarted more laughter from her.  
Even their beloved chauffeur, Mr. Kim couldn’t help wiping at his moist eyes by the time they had finished.

\--

It felt good.  
This moment.

Jumin reached out, thumbing at his wife’s dampened cheeks while she candidly fixed his tie and straightened the pin into the fabric.  
By now, the girl had regained some composure and dawned a healthy, glowing radiance from the rush.  
After giving him another once over and smoothing down his lapels, she gave a dimpled grin. 

“Perfect. You are a handsome man, Han Jumin.” The girl mused as she gave his chest a pat.  
“... Thanks to you.” He finally obliged with a flat tone, "And I've learned ... _the joy_... of coin-plucking."  
The girl gave a weak scoff and brushed lovingly at his bangs.  
"Promise me that you'll laugh like that again and I won't feel so bad." 

"I can promise you this now, I find your humour strangely liberating."  
Jumin smiled as he leaned in, giving her nose a chaste peck.  
It would have sufficed, though in the second that followed he knew it hadn't.  
His chest instinctively warmed as she tilted, searching out his mouth, wordlessly wanting with her cherry lips slightly parted.

... And, how could he not give in to her, when she had given him so much?  


His fingers slid up the arch of her neck, taking comfort in her familiarity and softness, tracing the dips, curves and sprinkle of moles he knew like the backs of his hands.  
"My beautiful wife..." He whispered, running the pad of a thumb over the angle of her jaw as he looked at her.  
And the words were filled with such sincerity and weight that her chest ached meeting his gray gaze.  
Jumin's eyes lowered and his lips tasted her, dexterous fingers sliding into her silken hair as they held each other. 

It wasn't just this moment.  
It was _all_ the moments with her that fetched broken pieces of himself he'd left untended; and she had effortlessly fixed him, enough that he remembered the joys of laughing again.  
It was a good thing to remember - a strange, ridiculous, beautiful moment when he felt more alive than he ever was before he met her. 

"Oh my gosh. Jumin, you have lipstick all over your mouth..."  
...  
And there it was again, the sound so uniquely his.  


\---

Jumin's laugh is more often than not, a mere syllable of breath that fell _short_ of a laugh.  
It is rich, melodic and low; given for an all-encompassing moment that seems much too brief.  
And perhaps, at chosen times, it is also a laugh so foreign, so unbecoming, that it keeps you suspended in disbelief even as the moment plays out in front of you. 

 

\- Jumin's Laugh -

**Author's Note:**

> First of all: Thank you for reading!  
> Secondly: Yes, using coins as tweezers is an _actual_ thing and I've personally seen this. It's most commonly done by men of the older generation. (Google will tell you a fair bit about it too!)
> 
> If I've made you smile, then I've done my job.  
> I hope you lovely readers have a good day!  
> This is for you, Beth!
> 
> <3 Second_Best


End file.
